Laundry bag



April 6, 1943- w. E. sTIEPHENsNj 2,315,909

` LAUNDRY BAG Filed May 2l, 1940 Patented Apr. 6, 1943 LAUNDRY BAG William E. Stephenson, Missoula, Mont., assignor of thirty-five and five-tenths per cent to Howard B. Hawk, twenty-six per cent to Clarence E. Stephenson, and twelve and five-tenths per cent to E. Curtis Chambers, all of Missoula,

Mont.

Application May 21, 1940, Serial No. 336,432

1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in laundry bags, especially of the type used to cover garments after having been washed or dry` cleaned. The prevailing practice in dry-cleaning establishments, laundries and the like, is to cover garments finished as above with an open-ended bag, which when tted over the cleaned garment is arranged to rest on the shoulder portions of the latter with the hook of the supporting coat hanger protruding through a torn slot.

The emplacement of this type of bag upon the garment requires a special hanging arrangement to facilitate bringing the two together. This hanging arrangement is quite essential because it is a matter of utmost inconvenience to try to insert the coat hanger and the garment hung thereon up into the tubular bag until the hook of the coat hanger protrudes at the top. Conversely it is nearly as awkward to remove the bag from the garment and when it comes to the matter of inspecting the garment it is virtually impossible to do otherwise than to take the bag completely off. With this preamble in mind the objects of the invention are as follow:

To provide a laundry bag consisting of one piece of paper cut in such a manner as to permit its folded portions to neatly cloak the oleane'l garment in such a manner as to provide for ready inspection without removing the bag.

Second, to provide a laundry bag of the foregoing character which is emplaced upon the cleaned garment with the utmost ease, being merely required to be placed around the shoulders of the garment, and then wrapped over at the folds, the final securing function being had through some simple fastening means.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the improved laundry bag, illustrating its emplacement upon a garment.

Figure 2 is a front elevation of the laundry bag showing the flaps folded back to illustrate the manner of inspection.

Figure 3 is a detail perspective view of a representative type of fastening means.

In carrying out the invention provision is made of a bag generally designated I. This bag is intended to be emplaced upon a garment 2 that is hung upon a coat hanger 3 in the conventions: Way. Said coat hanger includes the hook 4 which in known types of laundry bags is thrust through a slot or similar opening in the otherwise closed end of a cylindrical paper bag which is completely open at the other and bottom end.

The socalled bag I is more in the nature of a cape. It consists of a single piece of paper which has a back 5 and a front 6. The formation in manufacture is such that closed shoulder portions l are made to define a neck opening 8 which is employed solely for the projection of the shank of the hook 4,

The front 6 actually consists of two members, these being the remote portions of the paper sheet when folded over upon themselves toward the front of the bag. These remote or marginal portions constitute flaps 9, I. The flap IIJ has a portion I I which runs parallel to the contiguous edge I2 of the ap 9. This parallelism extends for a short distance, whereupon the flap I0 extends off at an angle as at I3, thus providing a fairly expansive bottom tip I4, the usefulness of which lies in the room which it affords for the fastening means I5.

This fastening means (Fig. 3) is secured to the bottom of the flap 9, well in from the vertical edge. This disposition of the fastening means is desirable from the standpoint of avoiding tearing out the paper as would be the case were it encased closer to the vertical edge. In securing the flap I0 the tip I4 is brought over the fastening means whereupon the latter is closed.

In making the bag the iiap I Il overlaps the flap 9 as indicated in Fig. 1, any suitable sealing means I6 being used to make a permanent connection adjacent to the neck opening 8. From Fig. 2 it is readily seen that the coat hanger and its supported garment are easily inserted simply by throwing the flaps 9, ID back. The fastening means I5 is then secured, the angle or are at I3 of the ap I0 avoiding any material exposure of the garment in case the bag becomes puckered and thereby is tended to widen the vertical opening between the seal I6 and fastening means l5.

Upon desiring to inspect the garment al1 that one has to do is to undo the fastening means I5 and throw the flaps 9, Ill back as in Fig. 2. This simple arrangement adequately protects the garment from dust or wear while in transit from the dry-cleaning establishment, and if at this time the attendant wishes to inspect the garment, for example, for identication, it is easily possible for him to do so without removing the coat hanger from its rack, by merely undoing the fastening means and folding the flaps b'ack.

I claim:

A laundry bag consisting of a single sheet of material providing back, front and shoulder portions, said shoulder portions extending forwardly and downwardly to form said front portion terminating in flaps, one of the flaps having a straight longitudinal edge, the other ap having a matching portion with an edge parallel to said longitudinal edge, then extending off at an angle to dene an expansive bottom tip for an adequate coverage when the two flaps are overlapped, means sealing the overlapped aps in the'shoulder portion and at said longitudinal and parallel edge portion, and fastening means carried by the inner flap near its bottom and adapted to engage the outer flap for closing the aps temporarily.

WILLIAM E. STEPHENSON. 

